FUEL, Ireland’s leading experience and entertainment group, has been ranked Ireland’s number one agency in the Eventex Top 100 Agencies 2026, and stands as the only Irish agency on the acclaimed industry list. The recognition marks FUEL’s sixth consecutive year as Ireland’s top agency at the Eventex Awards, the world’s leading awards for events and experience marketing.
The Eventex Index is based solely on performance at the Eventex Awards across three editions. This year’s ranking drew on 3,851 entries from 79 countries, with only 47 agencies retaining their place from last year.
Headquartered in Dublin with teams across the US and UK, FUEL is a multi-award-winning global group operating across live experiences, creative, content, employee experience, high-end production, and major cultural festivals including WellFest, Kaleidoscope and Beyond the Pale. FUEL’s Irish and international clients include PayPal, Coca-Cola, Google, AIB, Meta, Airbnb, Universal Music Group, Paramount Pictures Ireland, World Rugby and Amgen.
The ranking follows FUEL’s recent acquisition of 53Six, the Dublin and London-based sports marketing agency whose client portfolio includes Arsenal, Juventus, UEFA, the IRFU and Leinster Rugby. The deal brings together FUEL’s scale across live experiences and high-end content production with 53Six’s expertise in performance media and fan data, giving clients the ability to demonstrate the commercial impact of their live experiences.
FUEL is also the official Irish member of 27Names, Europe’s leading live experience agency collective, which this week launched its European Experience Index (EEX) 2026. Based on research with nearly 300 senior client and agency leaders across 27 European countries, the report reveals the following key findings:
- Across Europe, the research points to a defining shift in how companies measure the value of live experiences. Return on Relationship (ROR) has surged from 16% to 58% as a client marketing priority in just one year, However, measurement is struggling to keep pace with only 19% of clients and 11% of agencies have a validated methodology for measuring ROR.
- ROR is now a top-two KPI behind engagement at 65%, while traditional pipeline impact has fallen from 41% to 26%. The shift points to a broader reassessment of what live experiences are expected to deliver: not simply attention or short-term conversion, but trust, advocacy and relationships that create value over time.
- Ireland and the UK combine very high expectations around corporate values with some of Europe’s strongest demands for financial accountability. 91% say audiences demand a values-first corporate purpose, while 82% require hard, traditional financial ROI before approving event budgets.
- Preference for physical activations has risen from 50% to 78%, while preference for digital web-conference formats has fallen from 33% to just 10%. The research points to face-to-face experiences as particularly valuable for building trust, relationships and meaningful engagement.
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Speaking on today’s announcement, FUEL Co-Founder and Managing Director Jamie Deasy, who was recently named one of Europe’s top 50 Event Agency Leaders, stated: “We’re delighted to be recognised as Ireland’s number one agency by Eventex for the sixth year running, and to be the only Irish agency in this year’s global Top 100. The Eventex rankings are based purely on results, so this is a real testament to our team and to the ambition of our clients. The EEX findings reflect exactly what we’re hearing from clients in Ireland. Businesses want experiences that are true to their values, but they also need to demonstrate clear commercial returns.”
Deasy added: “The new research shows that only 19% of businesses have a validated way to measure the value of their relationships. Bringing 53Six into the FUEL group gives our clients that capability, connecting live experiences with the audience data to prove their return.”
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